The fight against fundamentalist Islam
Reader comment on item: San Bernardino Murders Expose Failure to Address Radical Islam

Submitted by concerned Texas, Dec 4, 2015 15:02

I'm skeptical that either political party will solve our problems with Islamic militants. There is a widespread denial on the political left regarding the seriousness of the problem. The Republicans admit the problem but don't necessarily offer the correct prescription to fix it. Former President George W. Bush and VP Dick Cheney proceeded on the badly flawed belief that they could unite the Iraqi Kurds, Arab Shias, and Arab Sunnis under a democracy. Freedom and democracy cannot work in most Arab cultures because of what they believe. Since many Arabs want to kill others who have different religious beliefs, how can you have freedom of religion? You can't. That's why dictatorships and constant war are a way of life in the Middle East. While military power is essential to protect our security, there is a great deal more involved. We need to counter the propaganda that is being used to recruit terrorists with our own counter-propaganda. We should jam websites that are being used to recruit terrorists. We should shut down mosques that are teaching the dangerous jihadist form of Islam. We should have admitted decades ago that any money we send to Muslim countries for oil carries the risk that some of this money will be used to finance terrorism. We should have taken the blinders off decades ago. The Obama administration's strategy of relying on Shiite terrorists to kill off ISIL is wrongheaded. We lose no matter which group of terrorists win. We need to be doing a lot more to help Israel and the Kurds both economically and militarily. Making them stronger is necessary to slow the advance of fundamentalist Islam.

Note: IPT will moderate reader comments. We reserve the right to edit or remove any comment we determine to be inappropriate. This includes, but is not limited to, comments that include swearing, name calling, or offensive language involving race, religion or ethnicity. All comments must include an email address for verification.